Tony Hill u Carol Jordan 08 - Cross and Burn

offer him no excuse to criticise. Bev tried not to hate herself for becoming so cowed so quickly. It was a strategy, she told herself. A strategy for staying alive.
    He took the plate to the breakfast bar and started eating. After a couple of mouthfuls of steak and vegetables, he glared at her. ‘You cooked the steak properly.’ He ate another chunk of meat, frowning. Then he cut into a potato and his face cleared. ‘You stupid bitch,’ he snarled. ‘How can you not know how to cook a potato? Fucking children in primary schools know how to cook a potato. These are like bullets.’ He picked up a potato, took aim and hurled it at her. Bev tried to dodge it, but it caught her on the shoulder, surprisingly painful, then skittered across the floor.
    ‘Pick it up, you lazy slut,’ he yelled. She tried but it was beyond the limit of her chain. ‘You can reach it if you lie down, you thick cow,’ he said, turning back to his steak.
    Bev did as she was told. She had to stretch full length, straining with her fingertips to reach the potato, driven on by his sadistic grin. But she finally managed to tease it within reach. She picked it up and pushed herself to her feet. She held the potato up, raising her eyebrows in a question.
    ‘Shove it up your arse for all I care,’ he said, finishing off his steak and pushing the plate away from him. ‘Now, what does a good wife do to please her husband after dinner?’ As he rounded the breakfast bar, she could see his erection tenting the front of his overalls.
    Oh Christ. It was going to get a lot worse before there was any chance of it getting better.

20

    P aula watched Tony cross the cobbles and climb aboard Steeler . She waited till he was safely below and the hatch was closed. Not because she feared for his safety but because she wanted a few moments to gather herself before she headed home.
    When he’d recognised Nadia Wilkowa in the photograph from the corkboard, Paula had assumed that he’d made the same mistake she had. That he’d been tricked by the superficial resemblance to Carol Jordan into thinking that he knew a woman who was in fact a stranger. When she’d said, ‘We know exactly who she is. She’s the victim,’ she’d thought she was kicking a misapprehension into the long grass.
    He’d looked confused. ‘That’s Nadia Wilkowa? Then I must have encountered her at some point.’
    ‘You don’t think it’s your mind playing tricks?’
    ‘What do you mean, my mind playing tricks?’
    ‘Tony, she looks like Carol.’
    He’d taken a step back, as if she’d poked him in the chest. ‘You think so?’ He looked again. ‘No, you’re wrong. The haircut’s the same, but that’s all. Look.’ He thrust the photo at Paula. ‘Her face is a different shape. Cheekbones, totally different angles.’
    ‘The jawline’s similar, so are the eyes.’
    Tony shook his head stubbornly. ‘She’s… I don’t know, ordinary. You wouldn’t look twice at her in a crowd.’
    Paula turned away. ‘For a moment, for a split second when I first saw the body… I thought it was her, Tony. The hair, the legs, the line of the shoulders. Then I realised the body shape was wrong.’
    ‘But her face was wrecked, Paula. If you’d seen her in life, you wouldn’t have taken her for Carol. You’re overlaying your first impressions on this picture. And she doesn’t look like Carol.’ His voice changed, bitterness creeping in. ‘Believe me, Paula. I am the man who sees Carol Jordan everywhere. And I don’t see her in this woman’s face.’
    Paula turned in time to catch the shadow of grief cross his face. She put a hand on his arm. ‘I’m sorry.’
    He gave a harsh little cough of laughter. ‘I don’t even know where she’s living. All those years when I knew where she was sleeping every night, even when she was undercover. Even when she went to ground after Germany. And now, I don’t even know what bloody country she’s in.’ He hung his head and sighed. ‘The one time I needed to be good at my job, and I failed her.’
    ‘You couldn’t have known what was in Vance’s mind. Nobody could.’
    He raised his head, his eyes wide and angry. ‘My job is to work with probabilities, Carol. That doesn’t mean discounting the improbabilities. And I didn’t even give them house room during that investigation. I was blinkered because I was convinced I knew Jacko Vance so well.’
    The silence between them was like the air before a thunderstorm. ‘You just